Repentance

Thanksgiving is ALL I Have

Dr. Mike Living the Psalms , , ,

Psalm 100:4

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!

What can I give to the Lord that is truly mine to give?

He is King of heaven and earth and therefore owns it all. He gives us stewardship responsibility for everything at our disposal. How we buy and sell anything is simply the means of exchange – He still owns it all. Yet the one thing I can give Him from my most inner being is the absolute appreciation for everything He has done, is doing, and yet to do in our world called life.

The Bible speaks about the sacrifice of thanksgiving which is our attitude and manner of expressing the gratitude to the one who owns it all.

When we initially focus our attention toward Him, we approach His presence through the doorway of thanksgiving. For thanksgiving:

  • Acknowledges Him for Who He IS.
  • Expresses our attitude of repentance.
  • Shows our gratefulness.
  • Reveals our inner heart.
  • Reflects on His story.
  • Reminds us He is our Lord and we are His servant.
  • Empties the self by replacing the self with Him.
  • Restores the mindfulness of His daily presence.
  • Helps us to focus on the important values of life.
  • Rejoices over His salvation for humanity.
  • Rejuvenates the soul.
  • Gives glory to HIM Who deserves ALL glory and honor and praise.
  • Everything else is His. But my response of thankfulness is all I have to truly give Him.

How do you express your thankfulness to Him?

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Encourager & Founder of
Vocational Leadership 360
Author of e-Books:

 *  Dancing With God: Life-Giving Theology Explained
 *  Great Business Emulates a Good God
 *  Be Radical…Follow Christ!
 *  Simply The Messenger
 *  Unequally Married

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Stop It!

Dr. Mike Kingdom Paradigms , , , ,
“O Lord, do not your eyes look for truth? You have struck them down, but they felt no anguish; you have consumed them, but they refused to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to repent.” Jeremiah 5:3 ESV.

stop it 2

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Mr. Bob Newhart is a standup comedian and actor noted for his deadpan delivery. One memorable,  humorous routine involved him playing a psychologist providing services for $5 a session. His one-line response after listening to the patient’s problem was always the same: “stop it.” No matter the problem, the solution was simply for you to stop doing it. A simple reply that in many ways is funny because we humans like to make our personal problems seem larger and more difficult than the challenges of others.

Yet Bob Newhart’s response is actually the best advice we can implement. (This of course does not apply to conditions caused by physical or mental structural damages.) When the problem is caused by harmful behavioral or attitudinal responses, something needs to change. As long as we continue to respond in the same routine fashion, how do we realistically expect the results to be any different?

The challenging circumstances we face each day is the opportunity to lean more on the Triune God. As we lean more on God, we witness his grace in action. The process slowly changes our heart as we develop a trust walk with the Almighty. This change of heart the Bible denotes as repentance. It is changing how we think and respond to the world around us. Instead of centering the pain on our shoulders, or throwing the pain in the face of others, we learn to give the pain over to Jesus who helps carry us through the ordeal via the Holy Spirit.

So the next time to find yourself experiencing a negative outcome, review the process that got you there, and ask God for the strength to change it. In other words, stop responding in your old way and ask God to show you how you can respond differently. Ask Him for wisdom. Ask Him for more love and patience. Ask Him for whatever you need. Like a caring Father, He will gladly provide you with the help you need. Otherwise, if you don’t change, who are you going to become?

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Executive Director & Founder
Marketplace Bible Institute
& Resource Center, Inc
Author of e-Books:
 *  Great Business Emulates a Good God
 *  Be Radical…Follow Christ!
 *  Simply The Messenger
 *  Unequally Married

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Repentance

Dr. Mike Life in Christ , ,
“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Luke 24:46-47 ESV

repentance 1

So many words. What do they really mean? Take repentance. Most of us growing up in the Bible belt associate repentance solely with sin. Whereas Jesus in the above scripture stated that repentance (metanoia) and the forgiveness of sins are two distinct subjects that need to be proclaimed.

Repentance has to do with changing your mind. In today’s vernacular, it is to change your worldview.

It is to acknowledge Jesus Christ is Lord and King and Savior of heaven and earth. It includes renouncing sin, but so much more. It involves being reeducated. It is learning life from the Triune God’s perspective. It involves questioning everything you have learned from the world’s system and comparing it to how God sees it and does it.

Like Saul who was zealous for the traditions of his fathers (which led him to murder Christians), he changed his entire viewpoint of life after being encountered by Jesus Christ (including his name to Paul). We likewise experience the same through repentance.

It involves our beliefs, values, and traditions. It is a complete house cleaning of one’s soul and mind.

John the baptist preached about the repentance of sin until Jesus fulfilled his initial destiny on earth. He died for us removing the eternal death sentence (past, present, and future sins) from us. Repentance is acknowledging what He did, admitting that we have been wrong about him, and now move toward focusing our mind, heart, body, and soul for his glory. It is leaving behind what we were before we came into contact with Him. It is allowing His Spirit to change us from the inside-out. It is acknowledging that we are poor of spirit and need His involvement to permanently change our hearts to match his.

Repentance is so much more than just eliminating the practice of sin from one’s life. It is thankfully aligning ourselves with the Triune God’s divine order and perspective. It is the process of adding God’s worldview into your world which leads to a refocusing of your time, talents, and treasury. When God becomes the center of your life, you can’t help but be thankful and grateful for everything He has done and is doing for us. It all begins when we repent.

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Founder & Executive Director
Marketplace Bible Institute
& Resource Center, Inc
Author of e-Books:
* Great Business Emulates a Good God
* Be Radical…Follow Christ!
* Simply The Messenger
* Unequally Married